ENGLISH A IS FUNDAMENTAL TO ALL UNIVERSITY WORK AND HAS BROAD VISION, SAYS VISITOR

During the period in which it has been my privilege to see a good deal of Harvard and to talk with Harvard men of all sorts and points of view, I have heard much talk of various kinds about "English A". I have been curious to understand the great diversity of opinion among men of equally temperate mind and responsibility of attitude some of whom expressed resentment at being required to take an absurdly elementary course in English Composition which they thought they had left behind in prep-school; while others declared it the most fruitful experience in all their college life.

I have been looking into "English A" a bit. I had thought of it as merely a course in theme writing; I was a party to my own son's omitting it upon entrance by reason of having "anticipated" it at Exeter. I am prepared now to say that if I had understood the idea underlying "English A" I should have urged him to take that course, regardless of any privilege of anticipation, almost if it were to have been his only course at Harvard. For I have become impressed with the idea that that course is--at any rate potentially--one of the indispensable things in all the University's offering. Fundamental, a groundwork upon which a man may stand in all that he has to do here; a background for all his intellectual life. I gladly, comply with the request of THE HARVARD CRIMSON that I give reasons for my enthusiastic faith in "English A".

Section Leaders in the Wrong

Anybody, student or section leader or member of the faculty perhaps regarding such matters with lofty disdain, who sees in "English A" no more than the writing and correcting of themes; only a year's more or less superfluous exercise in English composition which ought to have been disposed of in the preparatory schools, misses, it seems to me, the whole meaning and purpose of the course. Undoubtedly there are, and long have been, section leaders in the course itself who have thus misconstrued its significance, and so have led their students to regard it with contempt. That would account for some of the derogatory opinion that has been expressed to me. But even under ineffective teaching, a student can derive great benefit from the course if he can visualize its big purpose and significance.

These three things, as Charles A. Dana told the students of Union College many years ago, certainly are essential to education:

First, that a man shall be able to see accurately, to recognize exact distinctions and true perspectives; as Matthew Arnold said, "to see the object as in itself it really is".

Second, that he shall be able to communicate to others what he has seen as it lies in his own mind in all its setting and meaning.

Third, that he shall know how to find out what he does not know and needs to know. This means not only going to headquarters for your information, but--even--more important--knowing where headquarters is, and how to get there!

Libraries Are Mysteries to Some

It is lamentably true that a large proportion of American homes send to the preparatory schools, and a large proportion of preparatory schools send on to the colleges, boys who cannot see what they look at and cannot listen to what they hear; who have no background of general information against which to place what they do see and hear; who do not know how to work or read or study or think; who cannot express themselves with precision or confidence in speech or writing; to whom a library or other collection of the treasures of human knowledge and experience are places of impenetrable mystery.

It is in view of this fact, and precisely from the point of view of Mr. Dana's definition of the essentials of education, that I see the great potentialities of "English A", even for those whose deficiencies of intellectual awakening and preparation between the cradle and college entrance are only relative.

The course is misnamed, I think. Its very title is unattractive and uninspiring. It looks "prep-schoolish", and smells of the juvenile status which the freshman is proud to have left behind. If I were in authority I should call it "The Foundation Course", or something of that sort, to connote its large scope and significance. Then I should require it of every student--at any rate every freshman--entering the University. On no account or pretext should I allow it to be "anticipated" anywhere. It would have to be taken in the Harvard way, as a preparation for Harvard work, in accordance with what I should try to make the very highest Harvard standards of inspirational quality, thoroughness and efficiency.

For "English A" whatever it may be called and even as it stands today--is the Harvard course in self-understanding, self-command, self-expression. At the outset of the Freshman's work at Harvard, it introduces him to the box of tools that he is to use here and tells him how, or makes sure that he knows how, to use them. It tells him where headquarters is, and how to get there to find out from the best authorities what he needs to know. It goes, and should go, to the roots of the classification and efficiency of knowledge as a whole. It should include a broad purview of Encyclopedia and Bibliography, the general scope of literature and learning, and above all an understanding of library resources and classification and of how to gain access to them. It should give the student, as he begins his work here and makes his choices of roads to follow, a fair notion of the whole circumference that horizons him.

Touch Upon All Subjects

It is with this broad and indispensable purpose in view that the themes and discussions touch upon all subjects--religion and philosophy, science and sociology, fine and useful arts, literature and the analysis and niceties of language, history and politics;--not so much to acquire concrete knowledge of these great branches of learning as to see them in their places in the picture of man's relation to them and their relations to each other; not to get knowledge direct, but to learn if may be how to go about to get it, and to make use of it.

The design of "English A" is to teach the student to recognize an idea when he meets it face to face or glimpses it out of the corner of his eye; in its setting and perspective; to gather and organize the material available for its understanding and support, and to present it with intelligence and surety of touch for the convincing of his fellowmen. It lays out the blank form, as it were, which the student will fill out as he goes along and with increasing understanding of scope and inter-relationship delves into the vast subjects of which the course gives him only the barest of glimpses. It affords the framework and warp into which all the rest of his college and postgraduate work and intellectual acquisitions of his after life may be built in and interwoven.

These are some of the reasons why I think "English A" is one of the finest things that I have found at Harvard